"THE FIRST THING WE DO, let's kill all the lawyers." Suggested as a cure for government
corruption during the reign of Henry VI in Shakespeare's play about the hapless 15th
century English king, it's a sentiment that will find sympathizers even today. In the
unfolding scandal that grips the White House, it's now the lawyers who have taken
center stage in the president's personal drama. David Kendall, the president's longtime
private defense lawyer, hoping to deflect attention from the serious charges facing his
client, has recently taken to making charges of his own against -- who else? -- Kenneth
Starr, the independent counsel investigating his client.

Kendall has now joined the ranks of other notorious attorneys who think the best
defense is a good offense by pointing accusatory fingers at the prosecution. It worked
for Johnnie Cochran. His client, O.J. Simpson, managed to beat a murder rap despite
DNA evidence showing Simpson's blood at the crime scene and the victims' blood on
Simpson's clothing. Once Johnnie Cochran was finished with them, jurors were more
focused on imagined police conspiracies than on punishing cold-blooded murder. Who
knows? Kendall's gambit may work, too. Certainly, the White House has done
everything it can over the last two and a half weeks to make Starr the issue in the court
of public opinion.

And Kendall isn't alone in this sorry tale of lawyers behaving badly. Where Kendall may
stop at nothing to defend Bill Clinton, William Ginsburg, the peripatetic Los Angeles
lawyer representing Monica Lewinsky, seems happy to let his client twist in the wind.
Ginsburg calls himself "the most famous man in the world," and for good reason. He
seems to have spent as much time on "Larry King Live," "Meet the Press" and every
other talk show in town as he has preparing to defend Monica's interests. Which may
account for why he seems to know so little about what really took place between his
client and the president.

Lately, Ginsburg talks as if he's signed on to the president's defense committee. He
recently trashed his client's veracity in several interviews when asked whether Monica
had accurately described the nature of her relationship with the president in taped
conversations. "Seriously, all 24-year-olds... tend to embellish," he said, an odd
comment for an attorney whose client faces possible perjury charges. Then, in an
interview with an Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, Ginsburg suggested he would not
want to do anything that might topple a pro-Israel American president: "I don't want the
president to resign. Who knows who will come after Clinton and what his attitude to
Israel will be?"

But what about Starr and the 18 lawyers on his staff? Are they as guilty of unethical
conduct as all the other legal beagles in this affair? Kendall has accused Starr's team of
illegally leaking grand jury testimony harmful to the president. And Ginsburg even
suggested Starr's investigators have physically intimidated Lewinsky's family: He
conjured up an image of gun-toting G-men strong-arming his client's brother in an
interview with The Washington Post: "That's 27 bullets you have if you've got three
(investigators), in case a witness gets out of hand."

But despite the Sturm und Drang of wild accusations against Starr, no one has yet to
produce any evidence of wrongdoing by the independent counsel or his staff. In fact,
Starr is the one person who has consistently demonstrated professional demeanor and
prudent silence in the face of the media circus of the last few weeks. Despite attacks on
his professional ethics and personal integrity, Starr has kept his focus on his job rather
than clearing his own name. The irony is, Starr can't defend himself against attacks by
going on the talk-show circuit like all the president's men. He is forbidden from talking
about the case -- unlike the president, who could tell the world exactly what went on
when Monica Lewinsky visited him in the White House if he chose to.

Perhaps Starr can take comfort in Plato's description of the trials of the just man: "Let
him be the best of men, and let him be thought the worst; then he will have been put to
the proof; and we shall see whether he will be affected by the fear of infamy and its
consequences." Before the curtain falls on this sad episode, Kenneth Starr may yet
redeem the reputation of his profession.

2/4/98: Faith and the movies1/28/98: Clinton, Lewinsky, and Politics Vs. Principle1/21/98: Movement on the Abortion Front1/14/98: Clones, Courts, and Contradictions1/7/98: Child custody or child endangerment?12/31/97: Jerry Seinfeld, All-American12/24/97: Affirmative alternatives: New initiatives for equal opportunity are out there
12/17/97: Opening a window of opportunity (a way out of bilingual education for California's Hispanic kids)